The present disclosure relates generally to spinal implants, and more particularly to extendable spinal implants.
Spinal implants may serve as intervertebral implants to replace individual vertebrae, as is known, e.g., from U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,550. In this known intervertebral implant, a thread bolt is screwed into each end of a threaded sleeve, with the two front surfaces of the thread bolts facing away from each other and meshing with the buttressing bases which abut the vertebrae to be buttressed. When the threaded sleeve is turned by means of a radially insertable pin or by means of a hooked wrench, the two thread bolts having a right-hand thread and a left-hand thread are screwed out of or into the threaded sleeve. One disadvantage of this device is that the tool used for turning the threaded sleeve has to be removed and reinserted after it has made a certain turn, e.g., after a quarter turn. This may be quite difficult or even impossible in a great number of surgical interventions.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a spinal implant, in particular an intervertebral implant, that may be more universally used and considerably more easily handled during implantation.